Hello from Taylor

June 1, 2009

 

Hellloooooooooooo family!

It's been a strange week. Here we go.

On Tuesday, our good friend Victor's dad died. He fell into a coma last weekend and passed away this Tuesday. They had the funeral for him on Wednesday and buried him on Thursday. We ran over for the viewing Thursday morning (they do viewings for 24 hours straight here) and we got there just 5 minutes before they carried him out. It was really good that we went---victor was really appreciative. He's handling it really really well. He is such a great guy. And now, his mom is able to get baptized (they weren't married). I really want to be here to see victor baptize his mom. The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes, but i think seeing that baptism would be incredible. His mom has come to church faithfully for the past 8 years. I really want to be here to see that.

This past Friday, we ate lunch with a member and got SO sick. It hit my comp right away, and hit me that night. So that made Saturday an interesting day. We woke up and went down to Roca to give a baptismal interview. We got back, taught a lesson to someone named Betti who is really good. It was a funny lesson because when I opened my bag, I realized it wasn't mine and that we had accidently switched with some of the elders in Roca. Unfortunately, my keys are in my scripture bag. More on that to come. We then we were walking to our next lesson and we both felt so bad, but I stuck a smile on my face and we kept going. Our next 2 appointments no-showed us, one was 3 of our fechas who are now not going to get baptized when planned because they were going out of town, so 3 dropped fechas, our lunch with the ward mission leader no showed us, and by then we were about to die because of our stomachs. At this point it became crucial to have our keys to go to our house to eat. We tried breaking in for a little while (we broke in last Monday) but we were unable to today because we had locked the door when we left. We (luckily) had the cell phone and called up the zone leaders who told us the elders in Roca were in their chapel. We jumped on the bus and went and switched and came back and went to bed. It was a tough tough day. After one of the citas no showed us, i made a list of all the things that went bad in that day. This list included our stinky (hahaha) house situation, the owner not doing anything about it, my lack of shower because of gross green water, and so on. It was a list of about 15 things. But then I made another list of things that were good on the day. I put one thing—I'm still smiling. Then I wrote in red underneath it ´That means I win!´ Thats one thing I'm really happy with—I just forced a smile and it made all this bad stuff durable. I think that's the attitude we have to take with our lives. It's like elder Wirthlin's last talk—we just have to smile and laugh stuff off. It would be very easy to get bitter, but that doesn't do anything.

I had a funny night last night. I woke up 2 or 3 times with stomach pains and the 3rd time, I couldn't lay back down because it hurt. I then set up my pillows and slept sitting up! Haha. It was funny to wake up sitting up—its really weird. When I woke up, I put on my soccer shoes and started kicking a soccer ball around the house. It was the best morning workout yet! I was dribbling around singing along with my music. It was funny. (I'm not sure if ) but it was a good way for me to relax and say this is going toJmy comp agrees  be a good day. I think I'm going to be playing soccer more in the mornings now!

Speaking of soccer, we're going to start playing on Thursdays now. We have a lot of people here who love it and it's a great opportunity to meet the people and the church. Yay.

Tamara is progressing incredibly well. We only had that one charla with her, and she has come to church twice and institute twice. The members all LOVE her because she is a happy outgoing girl that's filled with energy. Its been great to see how the members all take her under their wing. I wish that would happen with every person we bring to church! But yesterday, the teachers were all calling on her to answer questions and share her favorite scripture and stuff like that. Its so fun having incredible investigators. She's like Carlos Buselli from Trelew (ps I got a letter from him explaining a class he gave and a talk he gave—that guy is incredible. He is so good. I wish i had time to translate it for you all!) Tomara is going to get baptized the 20th.

Our other fechas all fell this week. We're going to try and help them come to church so they can get baptized. Normally I try to put my fechas for within a month ish. They have to come 3 times to church, and if like moving quickly because if you draw it out, Satan has more time to fight against them. But I feel like if they will keep their commitments, they can easily get a testimony and get baptized in three weeks. Example: Tomara. Other example: Carlos. There are people who need more time too and that's okay.

Question—what is the difference between the law of the harvest and receiving blessings for what we do? I know that if I study Spanish, I'll be able to speak it. So where does the study it and God helps us come in? I didn't explain the question well... sorry.

Other question—why is it so hard to find the gospel in the world today? It is so hard. Is it our pride? That's what I think, but its really hard!

I love you all—

Have a great week!